Wilnervision!

And here we have this week’s MSN DVD column, in which I consider “The Ghost Writer” and “A Prophet” as examples of smarter-than-average moviemaking. I’d only recommend one of them as essential cinema, but you’ll have to read the piece to find out which one …

… unless, you know, happened to be reading this blog back when both films were playing theatrically. I kinda gave it away then.

Also, remember when I went to the Hart House Craft Beer BBQ last year, and wrote about it? Well, I’ve done it again for the 2010 edition. It took a few days to put the piece together, but in my defense, on the night I was only really capable of scrawling “glug glug glug, nom nom nom” in my notebook. Do enjoy my more sophistimacated observations.

This week’s MSN DVD column has yet to go up because of the long weekend. I swear I filed it on time. I am not losing my mind at all.

In entirely unrelated news, does anybody know a good dog trainer?

An update: Looks like he’s staying.

I don’t often blog on Sundays any more; it’s not a religious thing, more of a too-busy-to-post thing. But the little guy in the picture compels me to make an exception.

He turned up in a neighbor’s yard sometime Friday afternoon, and he clearly comes from somewhere — he’s too well cared for to be a stray. We don’t think he’s from around here; none of the building’s dog owners have encountered him in their travels, and as someone who will stop and pet almost anything on four legs, if I’ve never said hello to him before, he’s not local.

If you do know him, please leave a note (and a contact address) in the comments below. He’s got some fresh gashes on his tail and a wobble to his rear legs that suggests he got knocked around by something — a motorcycle, maybe, or possibly a bicycle — on his way here. He’s very sweet, and he’s safe and comfortable, but I’m also sure he’d much rather be with his own people if that’s at all possible.

I’ve put the word out via Facebook and Twitter as well, but I figure I ought to try every means available, right?

I salute you with my little plastic glass!

Hope you’re all enjoying the long weekend, wherever you may be. I’m someplace temperate myself, with any luck.

The news broke yesterday that Toronto theatre, film and television actor Tracy Wright had died, age 50, of pancreatic cancer. Torontoist has a nice memorial here. I can’t say I knew her, but we both live(d) in the same neighbourhood and work(ed) in the same industry, so we developed a nodding acquaintance over the last decade or so.

I didn’t even know she was sick until a couple of weeks ago, when it sort of slipped out at the press day for Bruce McDonald’s “This Movie is Broken”; her partner Don McKellar had cancelled his scheduled interviews on short notice, and we were told he was staying home with Tracy, who’d just come back from the hospital. I asked McDonald what that meant when I sat down with him; he filled me in on the details, and I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach for the rest of the day.

I asked him to give them my love the next time he saw Don. I hope he did, but it doesn’t really matter. I’m sure it would have been just one more voice in a chorus of support. Tracy Wright may never have been a huge star, even by Canadian standards, but she was deeply loved in this town, and elsewhere, and we’ll be seeing proof of that in the days to come.

Also, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz’ new action romance comedy thing “Knight and Day” opens today. My review will appear in the new issue of NOW tonight, and I’ll put it online as soon as I’m able, but all you really need to know is that it is a full-on mess that wastes the time and talent of all involved. (UPDATE: There it is.) Life is short and unfair; don’t waste your time.

Sorry for yesterday’s absence; I spent the day transferring files from my wheezy old laptop to its shiny new replacement — when I wasn’t watching more documentaries, of course.

But all is well and good now, and the new machine is humming right along … which is handy, because I have quite a lot of work to do. I mean, sure, I could rhapsodize about the design improvements Sony’s made in the last two and a half years — the illuminated keyboard, the multi-touch trackpad, the sensibly placed smart-card readers, and so on — but who has time?

Yeah, I’ll admit it: I’m Sony’s bitch. But right now, right this minute, when everything’s humming along properly, I kind of don’t mind.

Just because you’re an adult doesn’t mean you can’t play with your food every now and then.

And now I’m hungry again.

(Pork, fennel, coriander and chili sausage by Sanagan’s Meat Locker. I got the second-last pair, so you might want to give them a couple of days to they restock. It’s totally worth the wait, though.

Ah, goddammit.

I had such a great time in the NOW booth at the 2008 Word on the Street festival that I’m doing it again this year — I’ll be meeting and greeting any literary-minded folk who should happen by, from noon to 1 pm EDT Sunday.

If last year’s experience was any guide, I’ll mostly just be handing out copies of the paper. But it’s still social, right?

The festival’s rather frustrating website says we’re in Booth 109; what’s frustrating is that nowhere on the site can you find a map with a legend as to which booths are where. Let’s assume, for the moment, that this year’s NOW booth will be somewhere in the same vicinity as last year’s — at the north-east edge of Queen’s Park Circle, near the Sony Reader Lounge.

If I hear differently before I head out, I’ll post an update here. See you there! (Well, one of you. Maybe.)